SARATOGA SPRINGS -- July in Saratoga brings the return of Opera Saratoga, the former Lake George Opera Company that took up residence in Saratoga Spa State Park 14 summers ago.

This summer, the company is figuratively swinging for the fences.

Emerging from the recession that has hampered arts organizations and from two seasons of just two mainstage productions per year, they return this season to their prior tradition of three summer works, and they will do so with some of their largest casts in recent memory.

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To fill that ambitious lineup, Opera Saratoga has, in the words of the company's artistic director, Curtis Tucker, "set out to do a season of three very different works. One is a classic 19th-century opera tragedy, another a pair of operettas that are silly and light and fun, and a piece that is contemporary in its voice but nostalgic in its spirit.

"These are challenging times for sure," said a cautiously optimistic Tucker. "Having said that, things have been going well for us. This is the year we're going back to three productions, and that is an indication of how we think things have gone for us and where they will go. It's a stretch for us, but early ticket sales have been strong. There's still plenty of seats left, but we're ahead of where we were last year."

Opera Saratoga's leadoff production of its subscription season, which continues in repertory through July 15, is Friday's opening-night airing of Giuseppi Verdi's "Rigoletto" -- the Italian composer's mid-career tragic masterpiece: the tale of a corrupt and licentious Duke, a doomed love affair and the tragic consequences of a curse that comes back to haunt the Duke and his collaborator in corruption, the titular court jester.

On deck for Sunday's matinee will be a double feature of Gilbert & Sullivan's gentle one-act satire of the legal system, "Trial By Jury," paired with Jacques Offenbach's little-known "Le 66," a three-character "opérette" in which a pair of cousins argue over the appropriate use of their winnings from a lottery ticket and a mysterious peddler with whom they interact who turns out to have a few surprises up his sleeve. "It's the most unusual piece on the program this season," Tucker says of the Offenbach work, one of many such works by the German-born master of the Parisian opera scene of the "belle époque."

The season's cleanup hitter, opening Saturday night, is contemporary composer William Schumann's "The Mighty Casey," fittingly premiered in the 1980s at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, home of Baseball's Hall of Fame, and adapted from the familiar poem "Casey at the Bat."

"It's not performed that often, but it's one of my favorite pieces. I love the score," said Tucker, who will step to the plate, er, podium to conduct the work.

"With a piece that isn't programmed very often, it makes you wonder how audiences will receive it, but I had a great experience with it," he said.

And it has a special place in his heart as the son of a music teacher and longtime baseball fan, who also moonlighted as an usher for the Kansas City Royals.

"My dad was my first music teacher, and my first Little League baseball coach, and gave both of those loves to me," he said.

"I hope this is a vehicle for people who maybe aren't sure about opera," Tucker said. "It's in English, and it's a subject everyone can connect with. You certainly don't have to be a veteran opera-goer to enjoy it."

It will also have the largest cast seen in years at Opera Saratoga -- 43 members -- which provided the impetus for the largest young Artists Program class ever for Opera Saratoga.

Tucker hopes this eclectic mix will be a home run.

"It should be intriguing for our subscribers, but for those who want to see just one, there should be something for everyone."

WHERE: Spa Little Theater,

Saratoga Spa State Park, Saratoga Springs

WHEN: "Rigoletto," 8 p.m. Friday, July 6, and

July 13; 2 p.m. July 9 and 15; "The Mighty Casey,"

8 p.m. July 7, 2 p.m. July 10 and 14; "Trial By Jury" and "Le 66," 2 p.m. July 8 and 8 p.m. July 14.